I have just been reading an artice on the BBC website warning of new malware attacking peoples pc's.

They have identified steps to help prevent malware from infecting your system. This is detailed below:

STAYING SAFE ONLINE
Install anti-virus software
Keep your anti-virus software up to date
Install a personal firewall
Use Windows updates to patch security holes
Do not open e-mail messages that look suspicious
Do not click on e-mail attachments you were not expecting

You mean spam ... which reminds me, i must check my box. Iv'e developed a new strategy on that lately . I just let it fill up, then no more comes in for a week or so, except my isp will mail me, to remind me it's full (grin).

You can get get spam pegged regardless though. If your with a small isp, all that has to happen is for them to be scanned for their account lists. Heaps of mine arn't even addressed to me. And often it wil be on the 'CC' line ... along with a whole lot of similar sounding user names ...

Last year, just before i started getting all that, there were some really curious entries in my snort logs that i suspect may relate in some way ... port scan type of stuff.

That BBC thing above though ... seems pretty common, stuff like that. It tends to make a person wonder how they actually manage to function day to day, some of the stuff they come up with .

The effect a virus etc can have in Linux is different. It is harder for one program to affect another as they have their own userspace. Unless you are "root", you won't be allowed to alter another binary file anyway.

However, there is nothing to stop you nuking your own data files under /home/you/ etc. So the obvious precaution is to backup your data. It's not that hard to restore your actual system. If you have separate root and /home partitions and some spare space, you can run a live CD and back up root to a file in /home/you using partimage, transfer this to CDs/DVDs. Then do the same from /home to root. Job done.

sorry to jump in but i recently installed phlak and they were daring coders to write linux viruses in ?tcp?(or some such like? it even told you to install to install redhat lnux then how to write viruses (or is it viriii?) but it seemed to be a competition just like in the hackers forums
paul